What features does vCenter Server 7 offer?
vCenter Server 7 offers both simple and comprehensive control, including transparency at all levels, through the centralized management of virtualized hosts and virtual machines from a single console. The powerful tools of vCenter Server thus simplify the efficient management of vSphere infrastructures, while also offering extensive control options. In addition, live migration of workloads using vMotion, full cloning, and cold migration are also possible with vCenter Server . Web services APIs also facilitate flexible integration of vCenter Server with existing systems management software.
This provides a single administrator with straightforward visibility into the configuration of all key components of an existing virtual infrastructure while managing hundreds of workloads, more than doubling the productivity of the vCenter Server solution compared to managing physical infrastructures. Because vCenter Server runs on Photon OS, patches and upgrades are performed independently of third parties, plus problem resolution times can be reduced with a free license for Log Insight.
Reliable virtual infrastructure deployment
vCenter Server provides proactive, automated management to dynamically provision new Services. Resources can be allocated and optimized with maximum efficiency. For example, 15 vCenter Server instances can manage up to 70,000 virtual machines and 5,000 hosts. Through dynamic resource management including resource allocation, vCenter Server intelligently distributes available resources to the virtual machines. This allows service levels to be easily met in accordance with service level agreements (SLAs) for business-critical applications.
High scalability and expandability in the hybrid Cloud
vCenter Server also enables seamless extension of on-premises environments to vSphere-based public clouds such as VMware Cloud on AWS - up to 2,000 hosts and 35,000 virtual machines can be transparently managed with a single vCenter Server instance - regardless of which version of vCenter Server is running.
Additional tools and features of VMware vCenter Server
Other features that can be deployed through vCenter Server include:
- VMware vSphere vMotion
- VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler
- VMware vSphere High Availability (HA)
- VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance
- VMware vRealize Orchestrator for creating best practice workflows
- VMware vCenter Server Converge tool for easier migration
- vRealize Log Insight for vCenter Server in the light version provides improved visibility as well as visualization of event trends for faster problem resolution
The key benefits of VMware vCenter Server 7 at a glance
As a centralized, extensible platform, VMware vCenter Server offers the following benefits for easy and automated management of virtual infrastructures:
- Easy deployment: vCenter Server can be deployed as a pre-configured virtual appliance in just a few steps.
- Centralized, user-friendly control: With HTML5-based vSphere Client vCenter Server , the entire vSphere infrastructure can be managed from any browser - responsively and from a single location. With just one click, users can be assigned individual roles, browse the vCenter Server inventory, or provision new virtual machines.
- Extensibility of vSphere Server via open plug-in architecture: IT administrators can use the vSphere Client plug-ins from certified VMware partners to integrate with and manage vCenter Server . The open vSphere Client plug-in SDK allows the implementation of backup, data security, security management, network as well as server functions directly via vCenter Server .
- High protection of vCenter Server instances: vCenter Server High Availability - protects the vCenter Server appliance and corresponding Services with native high availability and an RTO of less than 10 minutes.
- Easy Backup: Integrated VMware backup and recovery scheduler simplifies scheduling vCenter Server appliance backups, including managing the number of backups kept.
- Unified patch and upgrade management: The VMware vSphere Update Manager simplifies and accelerates automated scanning and patching of active ESXi hosts. The vCenter Server appliance can also be deployed repeatably from a template using RESTful APIs.
- High security and availability from vSphere: Automated and proactive management features such as automatic load balancing and ready-to-use automation workflows ensure high availability.